Author: Al

Text: Matthew 6:24-34
Date: Epiphany VIII + 2/27/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

In our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount He has been telling us who believe on Him what He is making us to be as His disciples. Quite opposite of any top-10 list of desirable traits the world would come up with He calls us “poor in spirit,” “those who mourn,” “the meek,” “those hungering and thirsting for righteousness,” “merciful,” “pure in heart,” “peacemakers,” persecuted and otherwise reviled or rejected by the world for His sake. He has ushered us through the blessed door of our new identity in Him and citizenship of heaven. Then He reveals the heart of God’s holy Law to us and with His Word creates a new heart in us, a heart cleansed and beating in rhythm with God’s will. Because we will not hear the end of the Sermon in Matthew 7 in the lectionary however, today’s selection acts as the last word we hear on this mountain as next Sunday we climb another mountain to celebrate the Transfiguration only then to descend into the blessed valley of Lent. After the challenging words of God’s Law fulfilled by and in Jesus, the last words are comforting and reassuring as He says, “do not be anxious.” Continue reading “Relax”

Text: Matthew 5:38-48
Date: Epiphany VII + 2/20/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

What do you say when someone asks you, “How are you”? Do you just say, “Fine,” whether you really are fine or not? An instructor in early college days once responded to the question, “How are you,” with the words, “Perfect, Just Perfect.” That struck us as being at least a little over-the-top. So from then on (behind his back) we referred to him as “Perfect Schultz.”

In today’s Gospel Jesus concludes this section of the Sermon on the Mount saying, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” To those whom our Lord Jesus Christ has called to follow Him, to be His disciples, that is, to you who have been baptized into Christ, He has given you a brand new identity. Continue reading “Perfect. Just Perfect!”

Text: Matthew 5:21-37
Date: Epiphany VI + 2/13/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

“Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them” (Mt. 5:1-2).

“The crowds” consisted of all sorts of people “from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (4:25). Today those “crowds” are of every land and nation throughout the world. “His disciples” were those who were following Jesus more closely, many to become His chosen apostles. Today those “disciples” would include you and me. His first major sermon or discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, is for all who would believe on Him and become His disciples. And all who would be such must enter through this door first, the Beatitudes. It is the preaching and teaching of Jesus, after all, His Word entering your ears and eyes, your mind and heart, that has the power to draw you to true repentance and faith. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” that is, those who have come to know and to admit and confess their desperate need of God. How many people, on the other hand, are there walking and driving and running around us every day today, and who are maybe sleeping in this morning or doing other things all because they don’t know, don’t admit their desperate need of God? But you are blessed. And now today we become, more than ever, the blessed who mourn over what sin has done and continues to do to us and to the whole world, as Jesus has us look more closely to the Law of God! Only those who have entered the Kingdom of heaven through this door of humble contrition and faith in Jesus are able now to hear and understand aright the rest of the sermon. Especially today Jesus illustrates what He meant when He said He did not come to abolish the Law of God but to fulfill it; that Law, summarized in the Ten Commandments, which, if you are to be salt and light in the world, you dare not relax, ignore or fail to teach. Continue reading “The Law Fulfilled”

Text: Matthew 5:13-20
Date: Epiphany V + 2/6/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Today we continue on in our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. But because not everyone is necessarily with us from the beginning, each Sunday we need to back up and reiterate how these words are only for those who have already entered the Kingdom of heaven by way of the door called the Beatitudes. That is, a person can enter the Kingdom only as God’s Word has begun to work that humble attitude of true repentance of the heart and conscience over sin and true faith that looks to God alone for salvation and life. Those who approach the kingdom through the door of the blessings of the Beatitudes become the “poor in spirit,” that is, they know and confess always their need of God’s help. They “mourn” as they continually see all around them what sin has done and is doing to the world. They know they are “meek,” powerless apart from God and are constantly hungering and thirsting for righteousness, that is, forgiveness of their sins and faith in and love for God as their only salvation. Continue reading “The New Righteousness”

[[Kick me! I forgot my voice recorder this morning. Kick me or have mercy.]]

Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Date: Epiphany IV + 1/30/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Since the celebration of Advent/Christmas this year the Epiphany of Our Lord has, thus far, consisted in a sort of introduction to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After His miraculous incarnation and birth of the Virgin Mary and childhood, when He was about thirty years old John the Baptist ushered Him into His office as the Messiah, the Christ by His Baptism in the Jordan River. Hereafter He began His active, earthly ministry in Galilee, preaching, teaching and healing every disease. But only now does St. Matthew get personal with us in his Gospel. Today the call goes out to all who would be Christians, disciples, learners or followers of Jesus Christ. The invitation is in the first words of the Sermon on the Mount, called the Beatitudes; “beatitude” the Latin word for the Greek “macarioi,” in English, “blessed.” The Beatitudes are an invitation to discipleship, the “entrance exam,” if you will, or the doorway through which one must enter to begin the journey as a disciple. For these words have the power in themselves to begin to change you—to change you from a sinner into a saint, from a child of earth to a child of heaven, from an unbeliever to a believer, from one destined to the punishment of hell to a citizen of the blessing of heaven. Whoever enters through this door enters the kingdom of God and becomes “a new creation” as the Apostle Paul put it (2 Cor. 5:17). So are you ready? Are you ready to discover what you must become or have already become by faith in Christ? Walk this way. Continue reading “The New Creation”

Text: Matthew 4:12-25
Date: Epiphany III + 1/23/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

So far our Christmas celebration has burst forth into the floodlight of the Epiphany declaration, in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” (Is. 9:2). That Light is Christ. It is the message of salvation through the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. The message is so bright, warm and winsome that, even though applying first and foremost to God’s ancient people, the Jews, still it immediately drew Gentile wise men from the east. So said Isaiah and Matthew, “Galilee of the Gentiles…on them a light has dawned” (v. 15-16). Continue reading “My Message”

Text: John 1:35-42a
Date: Epiphany II X 1/16/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

The Apostle and Evangelist St. John must have loved recalling and telling of this, his first encounter with and his first steps in following Jesus. For, then everything was so new, so fresh, so exciting. He was a disciple of John the son of Zechariah who, everyone said, was a real, true prophet of God. And people, lots of people, were responding to his preaching: “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” I’m sure young John was among the first to be baptized. I wonder if he then served as an usher of sorts, directing people into and helping them out of the Jordan River. This was really new and not like the, at times, boring round of chants and readings in synagogue and sacrifices in the temple. Continue reading “My Beloved Disciples”

Text: Matthew 3:13-17
Date: Epiphany I + Baptism of Our Lord + 1/9/11
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Last Sunday, with St. Luke’s account of the twelve-year-old Jesus being (1) lost and found (2) at Passover (3) in the Jerusalem Temple, we spoke, among other things, of God’s Word. We spoke of His prophetic Word in the Old Testament and especially of those prophecies that pointed to their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. In fact we made the observation, saying, that the only way we can really know that this Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, Christ and Savior is not because your parents told you (as they should), or because “the Church” throughout all the ages and the world told you so (as she should), but only and solely because faith sees that everything written about Him in the Old Testament has been perfectly and completely fulfilled in Him and only in Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the virgin Mary, the descendant of Abraham and David. This was the source and authority that directed the wise men when they asked, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” The chief priests and the scribes got out their Bibles and read Micah 5:2 as the prophecy that says the Savior will be born in Bethlehem. They seemed quite sure. Because the prophet said it, they believed it, and it was so. And the wise men went and discovered their goal. Continue reading “My Beloved Son”